are you a kindness spreader?

We all want a kinder gentler world, and yet are we willing to take action toward kindness? Ask yourself as you go through your day how much of what you think, speak and do is from a space of kindness. It’s sure easy to be kind when we are in a happy place surrounded by fun loving people. You know, those days when the sun is shining, our favorite song is playing and you’ve just talked to the people you love.

It’s so easy to spread kindness to those we care about and agree with. How about those you don’t agree with? And before I go on, let’s understand that kindness doesn’t mean submission, it means being respectful in your disagreement.

I love social media and my news feed is vastly populated with positive stories and yet I find a subtle undertone of stepping out of kindness for the sake of humor as well as it’s okay to be unkind to unkind people. Recently a once respected news anchor, Brian Williams, was caught in a big lie. This past weekend Kanye West made some controversial unkind statements about a fellow artist at the Grammys. Even my mostly positive news feed was filled with mean comments, sometimes masked in humor, about these two men. I am in no means justifying the actions of these men and yet does that give us a right to step out of kindness because ‘he started it.?

Just like being mostly positive, I have negative thoughts, words and actions. I have unkind thoughts, words and actions too. I am hesitating on this blog entry feeling it may be unkind as I live and love focusing on what is going well in the world. And yet my awareness of when I am negative allows me to reframe to positive. My awareness of when I’m unkind allows me to return to kindness. I ask you to be aware of your thoughts, words and actions, even the subtle ones that seem harmless, and live from a space of love, compassion, gentleness and forgiveness. Be a kindness spreader.

Kindness in action to me looks like:

Being aware of my thoughts, words and actions and reframing them if they are coming from a space of tearing down rather than lifting up.

Focusing on kindness as what I focus on I create more of.

Facing unkindness from a solutions space rather than blame space.

Remembering the fact that people who hurt, hurt others as I move through my sadness, anger, or hurt feelings due to unkind words or actions. They still have consequences to their actions and yet I don’t have to see them as monsters.

Letting someone walk through their mistakes, and the consequences they face due to those mistakes, without rubbing their noses in it.

Mostly my wish for you this week is to think, see and act upon all the kindness that is in your life and the world as there is plenty to be thought of, spoken about and acted upon when you choose to see love over fear.

Until next time, spread and receive kindness.

uplifting quotes

“Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understand you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.”~ Og Mandino